Like many sports franchises, NASCAR started analyzing their social media presence three years ago. The team of eight individuals is led by Sean Doherty, director of Digital and Social Media Engagement. While the broadcasts and race sales are as popular as ever, Doherty noted an increase in demand for the “second screen experience,” in which a fan talks about the race with friends on social media. To that end, NASCAR has built a system that allows them to “see the conversation” around a race and create faster responses to fan questions.

During an interview with SiliconANGLE Media’s production hub, theCUBE, Doherty shares more on how NASCAR leverages social data to learn from the second screen experience.

Digging in with HAVEn and Hadoop

NASCAR’s system works through an Hewlett-Packard Solution, HAVEn, for the social center, with Hadoop ingesting the data and JBoss analyzing it all. The team is able to create graphics based on hashtags and other trends in social media. One of the things the team focuses on while looking at Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat is “fan sentiment” concerning a race or a specific driver. NASCAR is also able to track the which events in a race are the most interesting, whether that is the green flag , wreck, new leader or the checkered flag.

As is often the case with social media, most of the audience comprises younger people; however, NASCAR also has core, lifelong fans who engage in social, and the challenge is in creating content that appeals to both audiences, Doherty explains. In addition to having pages on the most popular social media sites, NASCAR offers mobile apps called “NASCAR” and “Race View.” Fans can keep up-to-date on “Daytona Rising,” which is the name for the renovations being made to the famous track.

Doherty is confident that the social media team at NASCAR will continue to see “support and growth” and his department will be an “area of growth” for the sport.

Watch the entire interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the HP Big Data Conference 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE